Maryland’s highest court has rejected a challenge to the state’s electronic voting system and upheld a ruling that touchscreen-style voting machines provide a reasonable level of ballot security.
Voting activists had sought to block the state from using the Diebold Inc. machines, or to require that each ballot be printed out as it is cast to ensure votes were recorded properly.
Activists with TrueVoteMD said in their lawsuit the machines were prone to glitches and vulnerable to hackers.
Maryland State Elections Administrator Linda Lamone has said the system records votes more accurately than other methods and that random testing of the machines on Election Day would ensure they work properly.
A state court rejected TrueVoteMD’s case two weeks ago, and the Maryland Court of Appeals, in a ruling late Tuesday signed by Chief Judge Robert Bell, backed that decision.
Lamone and a spokeswoman for TrueVoteMD were not immediately available for comment.
The U.S. Congress provided funding to help states upgrade their voting systems after the Florida presidential recount battle in 2000 cast an unflattering light on aging, paper-based methods of balloting.
About one in three U.S. voters is expected to cast a ballot on an electronic machine in the Nov. 2 election.
Elections officials in California and Ohio have scaled back plans to use the ATM-like machines, citing security concerns.